US Greens declare support for pro-democracy protesters in Egypt, Tunisia, other countries‏

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Sunday, January 30, 2011

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, cell 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org


US Greens declare support for pro-democracy protesters in Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, Algeria, and other nations

• Greens condemn US aid to dictators like Mubarak -- some of it used to suppress nonviolent protesters

• Green Party 'Egypt in Revolt' page with news feeds http://www.gp.org/egypt.html

• "Tunisia: African Greens Federation calls for Peace and Non-Violence" http://africangreens.org/spip.php?article53

• Green Party Speakers Bureau: Greens available to speak on international issues http://www.gp.org/speakers/speakers-foreign-policy.php


WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders in the US announced the party's support and encouragement for nonviolent protesters in Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Algeria, and other nations in the region who have taken to the streets in demand for an end to corrupt and oppressive regimes.

"The Green Party of the United States supports democracy, here and throughout the world. We hope that the protesters in Egypt succeed in deposing President Mubarak, and we're thrilled to see so many young people stand up against dictators. The best outcome would be for Tunisia, Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia to improve economic conditions for their populations and embrace democracy, equal rights and protections for women and for ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities, and freedom of the press. We condemn the brutal responses to the protests, including police violence and the shutdown of the Internet," said Dr. Anthony Gronowicz, 2010 Green candidate for Congress in New York's 7th District and a member of the party's International Committee (http://www.gp.org/committees/intl).

Greens noted that the threatened regimes, especially Egyptian President Mubarak's administration, were propped up by the US for the purpose of serving US interests such as access to oil and other resources, the maintenance of military bases on foreign soil, and unequivocal support for Israel's brutal occupation and apartheid system.

"While the Obama Administration has offered some restrained rhetorical support for the demonstrations, the US continues to send the Egyptian government billions of dollars in military aid, some of it now being used by security forces to beat and teargas protesters," said David Doonan, Mayor of Greenwich, New York, and a member of the Green Party. "For true stability in the region, North African and Middle Eastern governments must serve the interests of their own people instead of the demands of the US State Department and western business."

Egypt is the second largest recipient of US military and economic aid ($1.55 billion in 2010), after Israel ($3.175 billion).

"The young people marching for democracy and freedom in these nations are a model for people in the US. We need a mass opposition movement in the US against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the gross violations of our Constitution in the name of 'homeland security,' and the reckless greed of Wall Street, the insurance industry, oil companies, and other corporations. Let's learn something from the Tunisian protesters: our outrage should not be directed at Wikileaks but at our own government's secret policies and actions that were exposed by the Wikileaks cables, such as the US bombing of Yemen and the attempts to undermine the Copenhagen talks on global warming," said Farheen Hakeem, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States.


MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
• Green candidate database and campaign information: http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
• Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
• Green Party Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
• Green Party ballot access page http://www.gp.org/ballotstatus
• Green Party Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus

"President Obama, Say the 'D-Word'"
By Mark LeVine, Al Jazeera, January 29, 2011
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/01/29-4

Egyptian Greens (in Arabic)
http://www.egyptiangreens.com/docs/firstpage/index.php

Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of the United States (Fall 2010 issue now online)
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog

Forming a Green Party Latino Caucus

Dear Greens,

Some of us Latino Greens are once again trying to bring together a Latino caucus.

We feel that it is essential to have a Latino organized, accredited, and active in Green Party organizing and decision making. To that end we are asking for the assistance of all state green parties in putting us in contact with your Latino members so that they can participate in the Latino Caucus. Please review your membership lists and forward contact information, in particular email addresses, for your Latino members to:

Anita Rios: rhannon@toast.net
Anita is Co-Chair of the Ohio Green Party, a recent candidate for Lt. Governor of Ohio, and Co-Chair of the Green Party of the United Sates 2001-2004.








Angel Torres: aatorres29@hotmail.com
Angel is Co-Chair of the Arizona Green Party and recent candidate for the Arizona State Senate.










Thank you for your assistance in this very important effort.

Anita Rios

http://www.gp.org/caucuses/latino/index.php

Green Party’s Hawkins Challenges Cuomo’s Alice in Wonderland Approach to Budget

Hawkins Opposes Cuomo’s Proposals for Tax Cuts to the Rich, Job Cuts

Says Single Payer Health Care is the Solution to Medicaid

www.GPoNYS.org

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Howie Hawkins, the former Green Party candidate for Governor, said today that Cuomo’s proposals to resolve the state’s alleged $9 billion state budget deficit by giving a $5 billion tax cut for the wealthy and laying off more than 10,000 state workers was doomed to failure and would be rejected by state lawmakers.

Hawkins challenged Cuomo’s claim of transparency, saying Cuomo’s penchant for micromanaging was freezing out the public and was at least partially to blame for Cuomo’s inability to attract qualified Commissioners and senior staff. Most of his Cabinet remains unfilled a month into his administration.

“Cuomo may have lowered the drawbridge to Fort Pataki but the King and his Court have retreated behind closed doors in the inner sanctum. Only the rich and powerful are granted an audience. You don’t even know who the budget director is. If advocates want to meet with even middle level staff, they need the approval of the boys in the back room,” noted Hawkins. “Even the so-called ethics reform and public campaign financing are being negotiated behind closed doors, without much sunshine.”

Hawkins cited Cuomo’s so-called Medicaid Restructuring Commission as an example of where special interests were given a front row seat by the Cuomo administration while consumers and the general public were left out in the cold. Medicaid is by far the biggest part of the state budget.

“The biggest problem with Medicaid is the out of control costs of the overall health care system. Despite the fact that the excessive profits, waste and inefficiencies of health insurance are the major reasons why our health care system performs so poorly despite spending far more money than other country, national Democrats recently decided to increase the power and central role of private insurance. If New York wants to control our health care budget, they need to follow the example of Vermont, which is trying to eliminate private insurance and control costs by moving to a single payer system,” said Hawkins.

The Primary Care Coalition in NY estimates that overall state spending on health care could be reduced by $10 billion (or 6% of the total bill) through enhanced access to modern, coordinated primary care. Much of the spending on expensive in-patient care and medical treatments could be reduced or eliminated if robust primary care were available in every community. Achieving this can best be accomplished by the kind of coordinated planning environment that a unified single payer system would make possible.

A state funded study of various universal health care systems recently concluded that a single payer system would lower New York’s health care costs by $28 billion annually by 2018 compared to the insurance mandate system just enacted by Congress. A recent Vermont study came to the same conclusion in that state, leading the Governor to push for adoption of a single payer system.

Hawkins did say that he was encouraged by Cuomo’s acknowledgement in the State of the State address that prisons should not be a job development program. Downsizing the state’s prison system to reflect the decline in the prison population and increased support for work release programs would save the state more than $300 million according to the Correctional Association. Hawkins would save additional money by diverting more non-violent offenders out of prisons into community restitution and ending the War on Drugs by decriminalizing or legalizing drug possession and focusing on drug treatment for addicts. The Correctional Association estimates that just repealing (not reforming) the Rockefeller Drug Laws alone would save $155 million per year.

Hawkins faulted both Cuomo and President Obama for failing to acknowledge that the country is in the midst of a great recession with poverty and unemployment at crisis levels.

“We need jobs now, not more promises of corporate subsidies and trickle down economics. New York should take the $14 billion we rebate to Wall Street speculators from the stock sales tax and invest that in a WPA style jobs program to provide half a million jobs right now for New Yorkers. Instead of more tax cuts for the wealthy, we should recapture the tax windfall they just got from Obama and balance the state budget. We should raise the state minimum wage to $10 an hour to stimulate the economy by putting more money into the hands of working people who will spend in buying local services and goods,” added Hawkins, a co-chair of the state Green Party.

Cuomo is seeking to give a $5 billion tax cut to the state’s wealthiest residents by ending the personal income tax surcharge on high incomes that was enacted by state lawmakers two years ago. Hawkins and the Green Party would go in the opposite direction, raising the tax rate for the state’s wealthiest residents. He noted that the top 1% now receives 35% of all income in the state, up from 10% in 1980, according to a Fiscal Policy Institute analysis of state tax returns.

The Greens would also enact a carbon tax on fossil fuels to reduce greenhouse emissions while raising funds to invest in clean energy technology, green jobs, and a carbon-free economy within a decade.

“It is time for Wall Street to start bailing out Main Street,” said Peter LaVenia, the other state party co-chair.

The Greens would provide local property tax relief through an expanded property tax circuit breaker; a state takeover of local Medicaid costs in conjunction with a state single payer program; and increasing local revenue sharing to comply with existing state law of 8% of state revenues.

Green Party NY Calls for Massive Investment in Renewables As Obama Visits GE’s Schenectady Facility

The Green Party of New York State called on President Obama to commit to a massive investment in renewable energy and for the United States to go carbon-free by 2020. President Obama’s visit to GE’s Schenectady, NY plant to tour its renewable energy department reminds us that the administration has paid little more than lip service to renewables over the last two years. The Greens called on President Obama to use his visit to GE, one of the nation’s largest defense contractors, to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and to redirect the military budget to providing living wage, green-energy jobs to the millions of unemployed Americans.

“During my campaign for governor I called for a massive investment in renewable wind and solar technology, retrofitting of homes, and a 2020 date for New York State to go zero net carbon emissions in energy production. President Obama’s visit to Schenectady highlights how his administration cow-tows to the corporate elite while ignoring America’s real problems: unemployment and catastrophic climate change. Schenectady, a once-bustling industrial hub, has been hollowed out as GE has moved its production facilities to low-wage countries. Obama has a chance to tackle the 15-20% real unemployment rate with a massive public works program centered on renewable energy, mass transit, and rebuilding areas devastated by corporate flight overseas. Instead he chooses to tour the GE facility for a day of empty green-sounding rhetoric while he plans in his State of the Union address next Tuesday to call on Congress to enact a ‘Clean Energy Standard’ and subsidies to support dirty energy plants, including new nukes and so-called ‘clean’ coal,” said Green Party co-chair Howie Hawkins.

Hawkins said the token nature of Obama’s green investment and jobs rhetoric is indicated by the small level of green investments in the 2009 fiscal stimulus packages of the United States compared to other countries. Green investments were only 12 percent of the US package, compared to 33 percent for China, 59 percent for the European Union countries, and 95 percent for South Korea.“Obama’s choice of GE for token green gestures telling. GE is producing its renewable energy products in China. China has a green industrial policy. The US doesn’t. Instead of a green industrial policy to employ unionized American workers with good wages and benefits, Obama is pandering to a global corporation that is profiting from China’s green investments and repressive government that keeps labor cheap and unorganized,” Hawkins said.

“After destroying Schenectady’s economy over the last 50 years, polluting the waterways with PCBs and radiation, and becoming one of the nation’s largest military defense contractors, GE is no friend of working people here. The Schenectady Green Party is in favor of renewable energy, but is appalled that President Obama is ignoring the problems generated by GE during his photo-op visit, and the pressing issue of unemployment here in Schenectady, commented Michael Welch, the chair of the Schenectady County Green Party.

“You know, during the campaign last fall we asked New Yorkers ‘Where are the f-ing jobs?,’ and it’s time to ask Barack Obama the same question. How can you spend over $500 billion a year on the military budget so that we can occupy two countries half a world away, but you cannot commit to a public works jobs program that will rebuild upstate cities like Schenectady, whose fate is no different than hundreds of other cities around the country? Unfortunately is seems pretty cut and dry that Obama is more interested in what GE executives think than the line-workers. It’s time for a real change in our country’s direction,” said co-chair Peter LaVenia.

Green Party LIVESTREAM: Greens discuss Obama's State of the Union during speech‏

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, cell 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org


Green Party leaders respond to Obama's State of the Union speech

• Green Party LIVESTREAM: Greens discuss the speech during tonight's broadcast, 9 pm ET / 6 pm PT http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus

• Greens on solving the deficit: end the wars, cut the military budget, tax the rich. Greens on solving the health care crisis: enact Medicare For All. Greens on jobs: a 'Green New Deal' with massive public investment in green jobs and clean energy.


WASHINGTON, DC -- The Green Party leaders offered comments on President Obama's 2011 State of the Union speech to Congress and the nation, scheduled for Tuesday, January 25. The Green response covers major issues the President will discuss in his speech, as well as topics he won't address.

The Green Party will air an online livestream with party members discussing the State of the Union, beginning at 9 pm ET, 6 pm PT, and running concurrently with the speech. Viewers can watch and participate on the Green Party Livestream channel (http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus). Call-in comments will be accepted on Skype after the speech ends.

"There’s a lot of talk about Democrats and Republicans 'reaching across the aisle' during the State of the Union. What about the gap between Washington and the rest of the country, much wider than the aisle between the two Titanic parties?" said Carl Romanelli, 2006 Green candidate for the US Senate in Pennsylvania.

HEALTH CARE

Should the Democratic health care reform bill be repealed? Yes, say Greens, and replaced with a Medicare For All plan -- legislation for single-payer national health care, covering everyone regardless of ability to pay, age, or prior medical condition, while allowing freedom to choose one's physician and hospital. Medicare For All reduces costs dramatically by enabling price controls and because Medicare's overhead is only about 3%, while the for-profit health insurance bureaucracy -- the real "death panels" -- pad costs by up to 30% for administrative overhead, executive bonuses, and profits for investors. Medicare For All would help business and stimulate the economy by relieving employers of the burden of providing health benefits.

Obamacare and the Republicans' effort to overturn it demonstrate that the leadership of both parties care more about profits for the insurance cartel, Big Pharma, and other corporate interests than high-quality low-cost health care for everyone. The Obamacare mandate (originally a Republican idea from the 1990s) forces people who can't afford it to purchase defective, inadequate coverage from private insurance companies, while doing nothing about skyrocketing costs.

The narrow Democrat vs. Republican debate on health care, which refuses to allow even the argument for Medicare For All, proves the need to get Greens elected to Congress and state legislatures.

THE ECONOMY

There are millions of jobs waiting to be created in alternative energy, retrofitting of buildings and other forms of conservation, and expansion of public transportation to reduce car traffic, say Greens, but this can only happen with a 'Green New Deal' with public investment in these ideas at national, state, and local levels. All of the Green New Deal proposals have become vitally necessary in the century of global warming. See "Fast Forward to Renewable Energy" by Cecile Lawrence (http://www.greenpapers.net/?p=58).

Such measures face a huge political obstacle: opposition from Republicans and "moderate" Democrats who insist -- contrary to all evidence -- that the best way to stimulate the economy is to reduce government spending (by $100 billion, according to the GOP), slash taxes on the highest income brackets, privatize essential public services and resources, and send taxpayer-funded bailouts to reckless Wall Street firms.

The White House and Congress can reduce the deficit drastically by ending the wars and occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq, cutting military spending and the number of US bases on foreign soil, and taxing the wealthy so that they pay their fair share. Future meltdowns can be averted by breaking up the "too big to fail" financial firms into smaller locally-based companies. The Green Party's goal of a decentralized economy, based on Main Street rather the Wall Street, will restore economic stability and security to the US.

Instead of shilling for Wal-Mart's grocery section, First Lady Michelle Obama would do far more good by promoting local produce, small farms and businesses, local banks and credit unions, union jobs with good benefits at stores like Walmart, extended compensation for the unemployed, and aid for people dealing with home foreclosures, said Greens. Ms. Obama's promotion of Walmart coincides with efforts by the chain to open four department stores in Washington, DC, over the objections of many local residents and merchants.

CORPORATE 'PERSONHOOD'

On the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision upholding the legal status of corporations as person under the US Constitution, Green Party leader Sarah 'echo' Steiner announced that she intends to take the Supreme Court at its word and honor her marriage when she finds a suitable candidate. See "First Ever Marriage to a Corporation Contemplated by Single, Female, 39" (Jan. 18 press release, http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=384), as well as an interview and other links on the Green Party's home page (http://www.gp.org).

The decision, which abolished limits on corporate spending for political campaign ads, severely damages the integrity of US elections and caused a flood of misleading and offensive corporate-sponsored ads in the 2010 election season.

President Obama and some other Democrats initially criticized the Citizens United ruling but have taken no further action. Greens have urged the President and Congress to recognize that the growing power of corporations threatens democracy, economic stability, and human rights and freedoms in the US and abroad. The Green Party, along with Move To Amend (http://www.movetoamend.org), supports passage of an amendment that limits constitutional rights and protections to humans and makes corporations accountable to their own charters and to the public good.


MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
• Green candidate database and campaign information: http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
• Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
• Green Party Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
• Green Party ballot access page http://www.gp.org/ballotstatus
• Green Party Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus

Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of the United States (Fall 2010 issue now online)
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog

GreenLine 12 - Medicaid Redesign Hearing in Rochester

Governor Cuomo's Medicaid Redesign Team was in Rochester on Thursday, January 20, 2011.  GreenLine 12 is selected audio from individuals' tesimonies.  If you have suggestions for the Redesign Team on ways to reduce the cost of Medicaid in NYS, you can send them via the web to https://apps.nyhealth.gov/health_care/medicaid/redesign/contact_form.action .

Download or Stream the Show Here.   Listen to the show at our online player in the right column, or subscribe to GreenLine on iTunes Here.

The Mayorial Comedy of Rochester

The Comedy which is the mayoral election keeps getting better every day and to make sure all can follow along at home it is important to understand the events which got us here. In June, Bob Duffy was chosen as the democratic candidate for Lt. Governor and was most likely going to win. At that point the city’s top lawyer was Tom Richards and the Deputy Mayor was Patty Malgieri. As November approached, the Cuomo-Duffy ticket became more certain of victory and the changes started to happen. 

Patty Malgieri resigned and after a delay, Tom Richards was named Deputy Mayor in November, only days before the Cuomo victory. The Charter of Rochester states that in the case that the mayor cannot fulfill his duties, the “deputy mayor shall act as the mayor”. Unfortunately no one in the administration, City Council, or Democratic Party understood that to “act as” is not the same as to “be,” despite the plentiful supply of lawyers. City Council was left with two choices: to fill the vacancy with an appointee who would serve until an election could be held in November of 2011, or to have a special election early in 2011.

Here is where the facts start to form the pattern of a plot. City Council held hearings and found that the public was strongly in favor of an appointment, but Tom Richards, the ex-top lawyer who misread the charter and apparently does not understand the Hatch Act, announced he would run for mayor but only in a special election. City Council went along with it under the guise that they needed continuity of all the good things going on in Rochester (yes, this really was their reason). 

In January, Duffy resigned and Tom Richards was sworn in as Mayor. Unfortunately that little phrase “shall act as” entered the picture and it started to become apparent that he was not going to be a legal candidate because of the Hatch Act. The problem is that the Deputy Mayor is an employee, not an elected official, and it is illegal for an employee to run for office if they handle federal money unless they resign. If he was Mayor he was fine, but if he was Deputy Mayor acting as Mayor then there was a problem. At first Richards claimed the charge was groundless - but then a week later he changed his tune. In a press conference he announced that this took him by surprise, and, though he does not think it applies to him, he would resign. 

So in order to preserve the continuity we have a third mayor in a month and all because the city’s top lawyer did not read or understand the charter. Who is to blame for all this? Tom Richards. The same man who wants to be our mayor to 'preserve continuity' - such as the fiasco we just went through.

Greens to 112th Congress: restore the rule of law after a decade of abuse of the Constitution‏

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Monday, January 17, 2011

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, cell 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org


Green Party leaders challenge the new Congress to restore the rule of law after a decade of constitutional violations and abuses of power by Presidents and other officials

• Greens cite election theft, vote theft, torture, warrantless surveillance of US citizens, official lies and impunity, 'preemptive' military attacks, denied rights in DC and Puerto Rico


WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders challenged Democrats and Republicans in the 112th Congress, as well as President Obama, to end a decade of reckless violations of the US Constitution, international agreements, and other laws by the US government and begin a new era of respect for the rule of law.

"The new Congress began with a reading of the Constitution in the US House, but the document seems to be incomprehensible for many Representatives," said Muhammed Malik, co-chair of the Miami-Dade Green Party in Florida (http://www.miamidadegreenparty.org). "The protections enshrined in the constitutional amendments and Article Six's requirement that the US honor treaties are not subject to the whims of Presidents, State Departments, the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security, the Transportation Security Administration, or any other government body. If we don't restore the rule of law now, we're in danger of seeing the end of the US as a republic and a free country."

Greens listed examples of official lawlessness and disregard for rights since 2000:

• The Obama Administration has maintained many of the Bush-Cheney abuses of the Constitution: denial of habeas corpus, detention of suspects for long periods without charges, persecution of whistleblowers, targeting of innocent Muslim and Arab individuals and organizations, and surveillance without warrant of US citizens. The Obama Justice Department has refused to investigate and prosecute Bush-Cheney officials for torture and other crimes -- including President Bush himself, who has boasted publicly of his approval for waterboarding.

Guantanamo and several 'black sites' remain open. The treatment of Khalid El-Masri (tortured under the US's extraordinary rendition program, later found to be innocent), PFC Bradley Manning (detained in solitary confinement but unconvicted for leaking classified material to Wikileaks: see http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/14/manning and http://www.psysr.org/about/programs/humanrights/gates-manning-letter.php), and other prisoners reveals increasing disregard for laws against torture in the US Constitution and Geneva Conventions.

The Green Party of the United States endorsed impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) introduced articles of impeachment in December 2006, before joining the Green Party and becoming the 2008 Green presidential nominee.

• Military action outside of immediate self-defense is prohibited under international law, but the Bush Administration launched the invasion of Iraq based on the neocon doctrine of 'preemption,' which is now embraced by both Democrats and Republicans. Some members of Congress have urged a military assault on Iran based on the same doctrine.

• The US, under both Bush and Obama presidencies, has continued to politically support and fund Israel's brutal treatment of Palestinians, which violates scores of UN Security Council resolutions and amounts to war crimes under international law.

• The Wikileaks cables have exposed extralegal actions and official lies, including US airstrikes in Yemen (denied by President Obama), secret military operations in Pakistan, a secret agreement with Britain to allow US bases in the UK to stockpile cluster bombs, and bribery and illegal surveillance to undermine opposition to US climate change policies (http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4215).

"Exposure of wrong-doing by government officials, which often requires publication of secret documents, is the responsibility of the press in a free society. The claim that Julian Assange doesn't deserve First Amendment protections because he isn't a credentialed reporter is unfounded, since the First Amendment covers everyone, not just professional journalists," said Pat LaMarche, weekly columnist for Maine's largest daily newspaper, The Bangor Daily News and 2004 Green nominee for Vice President. (See http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=372)

• Irregularities in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections disenfranchised thousands of US citizens, especially black, young, and low-income voters. The Supreme Court's patently biased Bush v. Gore decision (2000), which handed the presidency to George W. Bush, held that no national right to vote exists.

Greens led the effort in 2004 to expose and challenge election irregularities in Ohio and New Mexico (http://www.iwantmyvote.com). Although two Republican operatives were convicted in January 2007 of election tampering in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Congress has taken no action to protect voters' rights.

Greens have argued that Section 2 of the 14th Amendment requires punishment for states that "abridge" voting rights. In the wake of the 2004 election, Asa Gordon, chair of the DC Statehood Green Party's Electoral College Task Force, filed suit against the malapportionment of Electoral College votes under the US's winner-take-all election system, citing Section 2's penalty clause and the legacy of racial disenfranchisement in southern states.

On Jan. 4, the day before the first session of the 112th Congress, Mr. Gordon was granted an emergency presentation of arguments before US District Court Judge Henry H. Kennedy challenging the seating of Representatives from southern states. Mr. Gordon's motion is currently pending. (More information and documents: http://www.electors.us or contact Asa Gordon at 202-635-7926)

• Whole populations of the US remain outside the US Constitution's coverage. The local laws of the District of Columbia are subject to Congress's control and veto power, regardless of the will of DC residents. Whether Democrats or Republicans have been in control, the White House and Congress have ignored the repeated requests by the citizens of the nation's capital, with its black majority, for full representation in Congress and statehood.

The US has also ignored demands by the people of Puerto Rico for self-determination and independence, ignoring protests against US Navy bomb detonations in Vieques, which have spread depleted uranium contamination, and unwanted laws and policies imposed on the island by the US government.

"The Green Party calls for the end of the colonial treatment of people living in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and others who've been denied self-determination and self-government," said Darryl! L.C. Moch, who serves on the steering committee of the DC Statehood Green Party (http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org). "We support statehood for DC (http://www.gp.org/press/pr-state.php?ID=172). We support the 2005 draft resolution by the UN's Special Committee on Decolonization calling on the US to allow the Puerto Rican people to exercise fully their right to self-determination and independence (http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2005/gacol3121.doc.htm). Bipartisan inaction on DC and Puerto RIco are an affront to the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the US's own equal protection laws. It's time to complete the unfinished business of the Civil Rights Movement and the national rights of US colonies."


MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
• Green candidate database and campaign information: http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
• Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
• Green Party Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
• Green Party ballot access page http://www.gp.org/ballotstatus
• Green Party Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus

Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of the United States (Fall 2010 issue now online)
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog


~ END ~

Democrats

So, I couldn't sleep last night because I was awake thinking about the responsibilities of mayor. Also, I felt (and feel) the weight of the decision that the Steering Committee of the Green Party of Monroe County, of which I am part have to make in the next couple of weeks. I was thinking about what the mayor's job entails--in fact I was sitting at my kitchen table reading the city charter. Next week we will be interviewing candidates who are seeking the endorsement of the Green Party. Rochester is a great city. It has its share of challenges for sure. But it has some of the most enduring qualities--quite literally, this area, especially the city, is a vortex of creative energy. Look at the music, photography, dance, theater, writing, activism--that were born and have thrived here. One needs only to read Frederick Douglass' Independence Day speech from 1852 that was given here, or go to the Eastman House, or the Strong Museum, or Geva Theater...(and the list goes on and on and on) to be inspired. But there is a creative energy that has been stagnant here. The one that nurtures grassroots political involvement.

We have problems with crime, with public transportation, with schools, with sustainable development. To name a few. Our attempts at solutions have in some cases, caused more problems than we started with. I'll give you one example and then I'll get off this soap box since it isn't really the point of the note--the combination of zero tolerance policy and city curfew. Not only did it encourage racist profiling, it fostered a feeling of mistrust and alienation between police and residents. Instead of making people feel safer, it made black males especially suspect automatically and created a feeling among some city neighborhoods that the police were their enemies. Say what you want, defend it however you want, but the truth is that behind all the shuffled numbers to make it look good, it wasn't preventing crime and was fostering racism.

To say the least, we have some issues that former administrations haven't been effective at resolving. I realize that no one administration is going to single-handedly fix all of the city's problems. But we need an administration with courage to try innovative solutions that bring the community together for input and help in solving those problems for the long term. We need a government that reflects the constituency it serves, not the party which happens to be in control of it.

I thought for a long time that this meant being a Democrat. It's no secret that I changed my party affiliation because I was disgusted with the Democratic Party. But that was primarily based on national politics. I saw increasing proof in action backing up what I learned in all those years of study--that what we have is a government where money equals power. The effects are evident everywhere. Votes get traded. It is, despite what we want to believe, a system where those in power are going to retain their power. Period.
Over the summer, I changed my party registration to Green and got involved with the campaign of Howie Hawkins for Governor. I met him, I talked to him, I listened to his plans. My vote for Howie was not a protest vote--he was the best candidate for the job. Governor Cuomo was very successful in selling his appeal to voters with his vocal pro-same-sex marriage stance. But truth be told, it made my blood boil to hear him acknowledge that hydro fracturing was a dangerous and far-from perfect 'solution' but would solve economic problems. Funny he didn't acknowledge the drilling contracts that large oil corporations have. Hmmm. But all the while, I still praised our local Dems across the board, thinking their support of Cuomo was misguided, but that we would not experience such deception at the level of local government. Not from the Democrats.

Well, I got my reality check. Rochester's Mayor Duffy has gone on to bigger things as he is now the Lt. Governor of New York. His position needs to be filled and the City Council had a choice to make. They could appoint an interim mayor and candidates seeking the office would go through the primary and general election process. Or they could hold a Special Election to fill the position. The Rochester City Council's decision to hold a Special Election for Mayor was announced last month, just after their chosen 'candidate' had announced that he would run for mayor in a special election, but not run in a general election. So, he was essentially saying he wanted to be elected mayor, but not if he actually had to run. It sounds laughable, but the City Council's argument is that they want stability for the city. As if they are doing some huge favor for residents of Rochester by taking choice away from them and treating them as if they are a bunch of children; completely incapable of choosing their own leadership. Besides the insult to the integrity of voters, this is a slap in the face to democratic principles. You just don't bypass democracy for any reason--even if it's because you think you know better than voters do. This decision has been supported, if not orchestrated, by leadership of the Monroe County Democrats. I know for a fact that not all of them support this undemocratic power play. But the leadership does support it.

Now I have a question for Democrats who support this special election: Do you remember just a few short years ago when Monroe Community College needed a new president, and Republican leadership of the County attempted to bypass the proper procedures for selecting one? It was the Republican Party leadership's intention to install one of their selected people, ignoring the input of the faculty and the community. Well, if you don't remember clearly, I do. Democrats were united on this issue. Cronyism, you called it. It was undemocratic. It was shady. It was a back room deal. It was wrong. Well, I've got news for you, Dems. What you have done with trying to place your previously selected person in the position of mayor is cronyism. It's undemocratic. It's shady. It's a back room deal. And it is wrong.

If you go forth with the Special Election for Mayor, you will not run unopposed. The Green Party of Monroe County has embraced the spirit of grassroots Democracy and opened the process for any interested city resident, as you know. We are accepting questionnaires through Sunday (and for those interested the questionnaire is available on a link from gpomc.org). So far we have heard one person publically announce their candidacy and that they are seeking our endorsement, but we currently have several applications. And hoping to get more. In our view, the best problem we could possibly hope for is having too many qualified, capable, viable candidates who are committed to Green Party values (the key values of the Green Party are outlined clearly at gp.org). We are reviewing questionnaires and interviewing candidates next week. We are spending the week after that in conference. I assure you that we are taking this process very seriously. Because we are committed to democratic principles--those which you have turned your backs on.

I know a lot of local Dems who have integrity and who serve in office because they believe in those principles. It is not them I criticize, but those who seem to have adopted the worst traits of their political opposition. As well as being offended by this as a firm believer in a government 'of by and for the people;' I take it personally. Until recently I was a Monroe County Democrat, and recent events make me ashamed of that.

The people of Rochester deserve a choice, and a choice they shall have. They also deserve a government with integrity. As do we all.

Enter Bill Johnson

It seemed that the Green party was all set to be the champions of democracy. They had called for an open process, put out clear rules, and received a few applications. There was good press and it looked like we were going to form a formidable opponent into the crooked Democrat-controlled special elections. Our chances got even better when the Democrats' plan started to fall apart. First there was a charge that the City Charter had not been read by the Democrats and the phrase "shall act as mayor" was found to describe Tom Richards status, which is quite different from "shall be Mayor". Then there was a Hatch Act charge which may force him to resign or bow out of the election.

Just when it looked like it could not get any more confused, in comes Bill Johnson claiming the Democrats need a viable candidate or he might have to enter the race. Despite using claims and language which is very similar to that used by the Greens about promoting democracy, Johnson has yet to make it clear what he intends to do? As of 1/13 Johnson has not indicated whether he is intending to get a third party endorsement, challenge the Democrats at the upcoming meeting (assuming there's a special election), or run as an independent. His presence only seems to further complicate the special election process in Rochester. Finally as he left office with the Fast Ferry debacle it seems unlikely that he is democracy's savior which many Rochestarians hope.

Arizona Green Party statement after Tucson tragedy‏

Arizona Green Party (AZGP)
(602) 417-0213
P.O. Box 60173
Phoenix , AZ 85082
http://azgp.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
DATE: January 10, 2011

Contacts:
Marcus Bellamy, AZGP Media Outreach Coordinator, (602) 703-6243, trotmium@hotmail.com
Angel Torres, AZGP Co-Chair, (623) 202-3747, info@azgp.org
Luisa Evonne Valdez, AZGP Co-Chair, 602-413-3182, lehallvaldez@gmail.com
Celeste Castorena, AZGP at-large member, (602) 430-9714 (bilingual media contact)


The Arizona Green Party continues to advocate for non-violence after tragedy in Tucson


ARIZONA – The Arizona Green Party is both saddened and outraged in response to the acts of domestic terrorism that plagued not only the City of Tucson this weekend, but our whole nation. Our hearts go out to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords as well as all the victims and their families, friends, and communities affected by this senseless tragedy. Our sincerest condolences to those lives that were lost devastatingly on Saturday and we hope for a speedy recovery to those beginning their healing process.

Nonviolence is one of The Ten Key Values of the Green Party. We promote non-violent methods to oppose practices and policies with which we disagree, and will guide our actions toward lasting personal, community and global peace. Peace is not just the absence of violence; it is a willingness to resolve conflict in a constructive manner with a spirit of good will and respect.

Violence is never an answer. We, the Arizona Green Party, will continue to advocate for peace and non-violence in the wake of this tragedy in Tucson and everyday; that bloodshed and brutality are not replacements for compassionate dialogue and diplomatic action.

Green Party Says Cuomo Fiscal Plan Recycles Failed Policies

Green Party Says Cuomo Fiscal Plan Recycles Failed Policies

www.GPNYS.org

The Green Party blasted the Emergency Fiscal Plan outlined by Andrew Cuomo in his State of the State Message as a continuation of the failed policies of previous administrations of both major parties.
“Andrew Cuomo is reading from the same 30-year old major party script, which says the bad economy and fiscal problems are the fault of big government and the solution is to cut taxes and spending. It’s the same old banker’s agenda to take capital off the tax roles and make labor pay all the taxes. The result has been an unprecedented concentration of income, wealth, and power in a tiny elite and stagnant or declining income, wealth, and public services for the rest of us. Wall Street blew up the economy, but Cuomo wants to blame public employees,” said Howie Hawkins, the Green Party’s 2010 gubernatorial candidate and recently elected co-chair.

Peter LaVenia, the other co-chair of the Green Party, added that “Cuomo is using this crisis to advance a ‘shock doctrine” on NY just like the bankers and Wall Street had been doing with the IMF and third world countries for decades. Slashing public spending for essential services and selling off public assets to pay off debts and deficits only works for looting the economy. Cuomo is continuing the bipartisan push to bail out Wall Street at the expense of Main Street. How is his austerity plan supposed to help an upstate described 4 years ago by Spitzer as part of Appalachia? Cuomo is advocating class war on behalf of the rich, and we think it’s time working NYers fought back.”

“We say that the problem is concentrated wealth and power and the solution begins with progressive tax reform to make the rich pay their fair share of taxes again so government can invest in what the people want: secure jobs, good schools and health care, clean energy, and a sustainable environment,” Hawkins said.
Speaking at a news conference in Albany, Hawkins also responded to Cuomo’s proposals for government reform and a green economy. Hawkins said that the state needs to go way beyond Cuomo’s government reform measures to full public campaign financing and independent redistricting into multi-member districts for proportional representation. He said Cuomo’s proposed $100 million competitive grants program for green economic initiatives was far short of what is needed.

Joining Hawkins in the news conference were Betty Davis and Ralph Poynter of the Green Party’s Black Caucus and public education committee who said Cuomo’s proposal for competitive grants for school performance would serve as a means for Cuomo to force reluctant parents, teachers, and school boards to accept his education reform agenda of charter schools, mayoral control, and union busting. They said schools instead need full funding, community control, and programs to redress the poverty and alienation at the root of low achievement in the schools of low-income communities.

Progressive Tax Reform
The Fiscal Emergency Plan that Cuomo outlined in his State of the State address called for a public employee wage freeze, no new taxes, a spending cap, and no borrowing. Hawkins countered that “progressive tax reform is a better solution to the state fiscal crisis than Cuomo’s financial austerity plan.”

“The richest 1% of households increased their share of all income in New York State from 10% in 1980 to an incredible 35% in 2007. The rich can easily afford a restoration of progressive taxation,” Hawkins added.
Hawkins called for restoring the progressivity of the personal income tax in New York to the level that prevailed before the first governor Cuomo began flattening the tax bracket rates in the 1980s. If New York State went back to the progressive income tax structure of 1972, the state would raise $8 billion more in revenue while giving 95% of New Yorkers a tax cut. In 1972, New York State had a personal income tax with 14 graduated brackets, ranging from a low of 2% to a high of 15%. Today New York has only five flatter brackets, between 4% and 6.85%. Most people with a full-time job reach the top bracket. A single person reaches the top 6.85% rate once his or her taxable income reaches $20,000, a married couple at $40,000.

The state also has two temporary higher tax brackets of 7.375% on income between $100,000 and $500,000 and 7.7% on income over $500,000. Mr. Cuomo proposed to eliminate these higher brackets. Those temporary tax rates on the rich bring in $5 billion a year.

“The state can’t afford more tax cuts for the rich. It’s fiscally irresponsible. Cuomo is pandering to the rich, to his political base of wealthy campaign contributor with that proposal,” Hawkins said. Hawkins noted that Congress just gave hundreds of billions in tax cuts to the wealthy by extending the Bush tax cuts. An increase in the state income would recapture some of this massive federal tax giveaway to help bailout New York’s economy which is reeling from Wall Street’s financial misdeed with the housing mortgage crisis.

Hawkins called for ending the rebate of the Stock Transfer Tax, which brought in $13 billion in 2010 but was immediately rebated to the traders and brokers on Wall Street. The Stock Transfer Tax is a tiny sales tax on stock purchases, with a graduated scale topping out at 1/20th of 1 percent or $350, whichever is less, on large purchases of a stock. By comparison, sales taxes on consumer goods are 8 percent in most New York counties.

The Stock Transfer Tax has been collected since 1915. But since 1981, it has been collected and then immediately rebated. “The Stock Transfer Tax is not a new tax. We just need to keep what the state already collects instead of giving it back. That reform alone will cover the project deficit,” Hawkins said.

Hawkins also called for 50% Bankers’ Bonus Tax, which he said would raise at least $10 billion. “A few thousand New York bankers and traders whose companies were bailed out with trillions in Federal subsidies, low interest loans, and guarantees turned around and paid themselves at least $20 billion in bonuses in 2009 and look to surpass that in 2010. While Main Street has been depressed since the financial meltdown in 2008, Wall Street has had its two most profitable years ever in 2009 and 2010. It’s time for them give something back to New York,” Hawkins said.

Hawkins said a much more powerful form of property tax relief than Cuomo’s proposed property tax cap would be a state takeover counties’ Medicaid costs, which now accounts for 45 percent of their property tax revenues. Hawkins also said that a “circuit breaker” on property taxes that caps the property tax at a percentage of income would better address the problems low-income and retired homeowners like the 80 year old Rochester woman that Cuomo acknowledged in his address.

Hawkins said the best way to takeover county Medicaid costs would be through a state single payer health care system, which the state’s own July 2009 study said would save New Yorkers $28 billion a year in health costs by 2018 compared to the Congressional mandated insurance plan adopted last year. “Mr. Cuomo says he’s looking for efficiencies in Medicaid. He should dust off of that study to see the efficiencies and cost controls that a single payer system would achieve across the whole health care system,” Hawkins said.

Government Reform
Turning to Governor Cuomo’s many proposals for government reform, Hawkins said, “We’re all for transparency, disclosure, and ethics reforms. But we need to go much further. Albany dysfunction is rooted in the two-party-system of corporate rule, where the big banking, real estate, and corporate interests call the shots.”

Hawkins said he was glad that Mr. Cuomo mentioned his support for public campaign financing in his State of the State address. But Hawkins said he hoped that Cuomo would support full campaign financing, not the matching funds model in use in New York City. Hawkins noted that the matching funds system in New York City still excludes the poor, working, and middle classes from participation. Hawkins said the Clean Money, Clean Elections model of public campaign financing would open the public financing system to candidates representing low and moderate income people. The Clean Money, Clean Elections model provides full public campaign financing for candidates who raise a reasonable number of $5 contributions and petition signatures that demonstrate a serious candidacy with real support.

“The reform that would go furthest to open up the political system would be proportional representation, where each party gets legislative representation proportional to the vote it receives. Yes, we need independent redistricting and I’m glad Governor Cuomo expressed support for that. But independent redistricting into single-member districts for winner-take-all elections would still create mostly non-competitive, one-party districts dominated by one or the other of the major parties with the most party enrollment. What we should have is redistricting into multi-member districts for proportional representation elections. That would create to competitive elections in every district, higher turnouts, and full representation of all political viewpoints in the legislature,” Hawkins said.

Green Jobs and Economic Recovery
Hawkins said Cuomo’s State of the State message was disappointing when it came to green jobs, clean energy, and environmental protection.

“$100 million for his ‘NY Cleaner, Greener Communities Program’ is far too little to meet the urgency of the jobs and climate crises. Cuomo said nothing about breaking through the stalled implementation of the Green Jobs/Green NY weatherization program. He also said nothing about the Climate Action Plan just completed under the Paterson administration. He avoided again taking a position against hydrofracking for natural gas. We should ban fracking in order to protect our water and the climate from this dirty fossil fuel industry. Natural gas development would divert precious time and resources from developing clean renewable energy. We should investing billions in clean energy, energy efficiency, smart grids, mass transit, organic agriculture, and green tech manufacturing. That is the road to jobs, economic recovery, and climate protection. Cuomo is only proposing baby steps when we need a massive crash program,” Hawkins said.

Education Reform
Betty Davis and Ralph Poynter of the Green Party expressed their opposition to Cuomo’s education agenda. Davis, a retired school teacher and principal and veteran of the Ocean Hill/Brownsville fight for community control in the 1960s, said, “Cuomo’s proposal for inter-school competition for performance grants is just going to be way for the state to force down the throats of reluctant parents, teachers, and school districts the agenda of Bush’s No Child Left Behind and now Obama’s Race to the Top. It’s all about high-stakes testing and public school closings, charter school openings and privatization, mayoral control and union busting. The first thing the state needs to do is fully fund the public schools, particularly in inner cities and rural communities with limited property tax bases, as mandated by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity court decision.”

Poynter, a retired teacher who helped organize the United Federation of Teachers and also was active in the Ocean Hill/Brownsville community control movement, noted that “People in affluent suburbs and the private schools of the very wealthy are not clamoring for charter schools, high-stakes testing, and mayoral control. This is being imposed on the school districts of the poor and minorities. We know that the best predictor of school performance by far is family income background. It’s time to address the poverty and alienation at the root of poor education outcomes instead of scapegoating teachers, elected school boards, and poor communities for school problems that start outside the classroom.”

Memo to Progressives: Green or the Graveyard

Memo to Progressives: Green or the Graveyard
Why progressive, antiwar, and eco voters must lead a popular revolt against two-party rule

By Scott McLarty
OpEdNews.com, December 20, 2010
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Memo-to-Progressives-Gree-by-Scott-McLarty-101216-690.html

Is it time for progressive, antiwar, and pro-environmental activists and voters to look beyond the Democratic Party and seek other alliances?

There's only one plausible excuse left for such voters to remain loyal to the Dems in the realm of electoral politics: to prevent the GOP from winning. Some progressives insist that we need to continue supporting Democrats because of Supreme Court appointments (although Dems in Congress have approved some of the most ideologically rigid Republican appointees) and to save reproductive rights (already watered down, with Democratic help), but these are corollaries of the 'defeat the Republicans' argument.

Is this enough reason to invest eternal hope in the Democratic Party? Is there any future for progressives beyond excuse-making?

It's no secret that voters who call themselves progressive have been frustrated by the Obama Administration's broken promise of "change we can believe in." The list of disappointments is extensive:

• The recent deal with Republicans to extend President Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy.

• Escalation of the Afghanistan War; continuation of Bush-Cheney-era assaults on the US Constitution; persecution of whistleblowers.

• Dismissal of the public option (in early negotiations with corporate lobbies, we now know); passage of a health care reform bill with legally questionable 'mandates' that funnel our money into private for-profit insurance companies, with no measures to bring down health care expenses or save Americans from financial ruin over medical emergencies.

• Authorization of new nuclear plants built with taxpayer money (private industry considers nuclear power too risky and expensive for their own investments); embrace of the 'clean coal' myth while allowing mountaintop removal mining to devastate and poison the landscapes of West Virginia and other states.

• Continuation of the failed and wasteful War on Drugs, silence about the mass incarceration of young black and poor men, and the powerful for-profit private prison system that makes money by filling up cells.

• Taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailouts; hiring of Wall Street insiders like Tim Geithner and Larry Summers for key financial positions; minimal aid for Americans losing their homes because of the subprime mortgage crisis; appointment of the 'Catfood Commission' to mull cuts to Social Security; continued support and military aid for Israel's brutal violation of the basic human rights of Palestinians.... We can go on and on.

Aside from slogans, Democrats in recent elections have offered no inspiring vision of a better America. In 2010, the only appeal to voters seemed to be "we're not as dreadful as the Tea Party or George W. Bush."

The Democratic Party represents what Chris Hedges calls "a corrupt liberal class, bereft of ideas and unable to respond coherently to the collapse of the global economy, the dismantling of our manufacturing sector and the deadly assault on the ecosystem" (http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/a_recipe_for_fascism_20101108/).

It's getting worse. Bemoaning the "shellacking" that Dems suffered on Election Day 2010, President Obama signaled that he's ready to compromise with the Republican majority in the US House. Since he tried to appease the GOP endlessly during his first two years, what he means now is capitulation, which certainly describes the tax cut deal.

And he's doing so despite the fact that 28 out of 54 of nearly-Republican 'Blue Dog' Dems were defeated on Nov. 2, while 66 of the 69 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus were reelected to Congress (http://beavercountyblue.org/2010/11/04/medicare-for-all-co-sponsors-returned-to-congress-by-big-margins/). These results suggest that voters favor Dems who stand up for their stated values.

Republican politicians aren't impressed with Mr. Obama's overtures. They've made it clear that their main objective is to defeat him in 2012. We can therefore trust the GOP to stake out even more rightwing positions than ever before, with their own vision of America as a Limbaugh-Gingrich wonderland of minimal government services and protections for citizens, vilification of vulnerable minorities (immigrants, Muslims, gay people) and anyone who disagrees with them (liberals, "liberals"), and maximum corporate and military power. (Chris Hedges and others warn that Republicans are on the brink of fascism. I prefer to call it Foxism.)

The 2010 election repeats a pattern evident in recent decades. The Democratic establishment retreats from the party's traditional values and constituencies in the belief that they'll appeal to an imagined center, all the while competing for strings-attached corporate campaign checks against an increasingly extremist Republican Party.

"Graveyard of Progressive Ideals"

Progressives play no part in this paradigm. Dem leaders take progressive votes for granted, and admirable Democratic politicians like Dennis Kucinich and John Conyers serve mainly to herd progressive voters back into the party's fold in every presidential election. Despite the sincerest wishes of The Nation's editorial page, there's no hope for rehabilitation of the Democratic Party.

Ralph Nader wants to see a progressive face Mr. Obama in the race for the 2012 Democratic nomination (http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/132835--nader-i-am-looking-for-someone-to-challenge-obama-in-2012). Progressive challengers from Jesse Jackson to Dennis Kucinich have competed since the 1980s, only to see the nod go to the corporate-dollar contender and any hint of progressivism jettisoned from the party platform.

The Democratic leadership holds the party's progressive base in contempt. Rahm Emanuel called those who complained about President Obama's broken promises of change "retards" and Vice President scolded them for whining.

Mr. Obama and other Dems condemned the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, which knocked down limits to corporate spending on partisan political ads. But they won't escape its effect. The power of corporate elites to influence both parties' candidates and hijack the public debate on any given issue has expanded far beyond what we've imagined.

Most progressives have only been able to see as far as the next election. Sure, the prospect of another Republican White House is scary. Here's something a lot scarier: another century of public debates and elections limited to D vs. R. (For a sobering prognosis of America's future, if we remain stuck in the same political groove, see Alfred W. McCoy's "The Decline and Fall of the American Empire: Four Scenarios for the End of the American Century by 2025" (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alfred-w-mccoy/the-decline-and-fall-of-t_1_b_792570.html).

The rule of two parties under the influence of corporate money has already pushed the US into a condition called 'state monopoly capitalism', in which government serves the demands of a corporate oligarchy to the extent that the two estates become inseparable. Hence the shrinkage of the middle class and widening gap between the wealthy and the rest of us, regardless of which party holds power.

US politics can be compared to the swinging pendulum of a grandfather clock that keeps tilting further and further to the right. If it tilts any further, it may topple over.

Short of revolution, there's only one possible interruption to this dynamic: emergence of an alternative party that embraces progressive populist, anti-imperial, and ecological ideals and rejects corporate money and influence. That describes the Green Party.

Some progressives within the Democratic Party assert that "It's not the right time for the Green Party."

The GOP isn't going to disappear by magic, so it'll never be the "right time." With such arguments, progressive Dems make themselves unintentional apologists for the rightward-tilting status quo. Their relationship with their own party is like a soap opera: "If I only stay true to her, some day she'll stop cheating and be faithful again!"

The "One Nation, Working Together" rally at the Lincoln Memorial on October 2, 2010, offered no challenge to President Obama or Democrats in Congress. Except for entertainer Harry Belafonte, not one speaker suggested that, if President Obama ended all military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and called the troops home, we'd have enough in the federal budget to cover urgent human needs.

In his Black Agenda Report coverage of the event, Glen Ford wrote, "After spending millions to assemble a multitude, Big Labor, the NAACP and the usual Black entertainers -- Reverends Sharpton and Jesse Jackson -- could not fix their trembling lips to utter one demand to the Power in the White House, whose disfavor they fear even more than they dread the white nationalist hordes of the Tea Party." ("Ignominious Surrender On The Mall," October 6, http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/ignominious-surrender-mall).

Progressive, antiwar, and ecologically minded voters who insist on exclusive loyalty to the Dems have acquiesced to their own demise as a political force. In his nomination speech, 2004 Green presidential candidate David Cobb called the Democratic Party "the graveyard of progressive ideals."

In a November 20 speech at the Harvard Kennedy School, James K. Galbraith, Vice President of Americans for Democratic Action, said, "The Democratic Party has become too associated with Wall Street. This is a fact. It is a structural problem. It seems to me that we as progressives need -- this is my personal position -- we need to draw a line and decide that we would be better off with an under-funded, fighting progressive minority party than a party marked by obvious duplicity and constant losses on every policy front as a result of the reversals in our own leadership." (http://www.newdeal20.org/2010/12/06/whose-side-is-the-white-house-on-28968/)

When the obstacle to everything we stand for is two-party rule, there is no solution, no change of direction to be found within either of the two ruling parties.

Right now is the best time to reject business-as-usual. A majority of Americans have expressed dissatisfaction with a choice limited to two major parties (Sept. 17 Gallup poll, http://www.gallup.com/poll/143051/Americans-Renew-Call-Third-Party.aspx). Millions of Democratic voters were so unmotivated that they stayed home on Nov. 2.

Coincidentally, most Americans also want an end to the wars, most disapprove of the Wall Street bailouts, and I'm willing to bet that most don't want their Social Security benefits slashed or turned into chips in the Wall Street casino. Most prefer more government involvement in health care, not less (AP poll, Sept. 26, http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=11725663). In other words, most Americans side with alternative parties like the Greens on big issues.

Throughout American history, the most urgent ideas came from alternative parties: abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, the eight-hour workday and other workplace rights, Social Security, etc. In her nomination acceptance speech, 2008 Green vice-presidential candidate Rosa Clemente said, "The Green Party isn't an alternative. It's an imperative."

Time for a Voters' Revolt

Ending two-party dominance requires more than just a few more registrations and votes for a new party. This 'memo' is not a Green recruiting brochure. Nor is it an exhortation for exclusively voting Green in every election. Greens are not on every ballot, nor would I advise voting according to party without regard for candidates' qualifications.

Rather, it's an appeal for progressive, antiwar, pro-environmental voters, and anyone who cares about America's future to recognize the alternative party imperative, and to support that imperative however they can.

What we need, as a preliminary for the emergence of the Greens or any other alternative, is a popular voters' revolt against the rule of the Titanic parties (a phrase coined by Laura Wells, Green candidate for governor of California in 2010). It should be led by a coalition of alternative parties that have found themselves virtually shut out of the political system and the media, including Greens, Socialists, Libertarians, independents, and others, as well as Tea Partiers frustrated by their movement's absorption into the GOP and sympathetic Democrats and Republicans.

All of these camps can unite in coalition, without sacrificing their own political platforms, to set the framework for a voters' revolt. The first step for such a coalition would be a list of demands that presuppose no political ideology beyond a desire for clean and open elections, and which appeal to fair-minded voters regardless of party registration. Here are my recommendations:

• A call to elect qualified candidates outside the two established parties to Congress, state legislatures, and other offices at local, state, and national levels.

• Candidates' debate forums that include all candidates and abolition of the Commission on Presidential Debates (owned and run by the Democratic and Republican parties), based on the principle that voters have a right to know about all the names they'll see on the ballot and a right to vote for whichever candidates best represents their own interests and ideals, without a two-party limit.

• Various election reforms, including Proportional Representation, Instant Runoff Voting (which offsets the danger that a minority party or independent candidate might 'spoil'), and other alternatives to at-large and winner-take-all elections; far-reaching campaign finance reforms; tamper-proof open-software computer voting machines; punishment for public officials who conspire to manipulate vote counts.

• Passage of the MoveToAmend amendment, which would abolish corporate 'personhood' and overturn the Citizens United ruling (http://www.movetoamend.org).

• Repeal of ballot-access laws in many states that hinder alternative parties and privilege Democrats and Republicans; for an outrageous example in one state, see "Some political parties remain outlaws in Pa." by Oliver Hall in The Philadelphia Inquirer (http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20101018_Some_political_parties_remain_outlaws_in_Pa_.html).

• Repeal of rules in some states that limit the number of candidates on the ballot to two in the general election (and fierce opposition in states where such rules have been proposed).

• Rejection of the notion that voters must vote for candidates judged by polls or media commentators to be the most winnable, which reduces voting in elections to the level of betting on a horse race.

Organizers of the voters' revolt should remember that the villains are not the voters of any party, but the two-party hierarchy and the corporate paymasters, media, and debate sponsors who've used their influence to limit the range of allowable candidates and ideas.

Alternative parties are interested in the direction of our nation in the coming decades, unlike the Titanic parties, which can't see beyond their own rivalry. Democratic and Republican politicians are primarily worried about whether the pendulum will swing in their direction in the next election. A voters' revolt isn't only about the next election, it's about future generations and a hope that the rest of the 21st century won't be limited to two-party politics.

In most of today's media, the basic premises of corporate power and military aggression that underlie Democratic and Republican policy are seldom questioned. It's taken for granted that for-profit insurance companies must control health care and pad medical costs, that the US has a right to wage 'preventive war' against countries with which we're at peace (a doctrine that Eisenhower deplored and associated with Hitler), that government in a democracy exists to serve big business interests rather than the needs of the people, that consumption-driven industrial civilization can expand without limit in this century of global climate change. An alternative party movement will push dissenting ideas that question these premises into the public forum.

As James K. Galbraith said in his speech, "[W]e are heading now into a very dark time, so let’s face it with eyes open. And if we must, let’s seek leadership that shares our values, fights for our principles, and deserves our trust."

It'll take a few more election cycles before Greens and other alternative parties can achieve major party status nationally, but we must start now, by rejecting the two-party paradigm, by recognizing that the Democratic Party holds no future for progressives, and by laying the groundwork for a transformation of the US political landscape that's based on multiparty democracy.

Such a transformation will open a wide space for the Green vision of an America that acts according to principles of human rights and freedoms, economic fairness for everyone, peace, and the health of our planet.

Scott McLarty is media coordinator for the Green Party of the United States (http://www.gp.org). He lives in Washington, DC.

Weekly Update - Monthly Meeting on Monday!

Hi Folks!

A lot of Green Party happenings in Monroe County lately. We hope you've been following it all. Let's start with our next Monthly Meeting!

Yes, it's been a while, but now we are back in the groove with our Monthly Meetings. It's this Monday, January 10th at 7pm at the Calvary St. Andrews Church in South Wedge. 68 Ashland Street to be exact. This meeting will feature a talk on Sustainable Communities. Our guests will be Chris Hartman from The Good Food Collective and Melissa Marquez, CEO of Genesee Federal Credit Union.

We will have childcare available as well, so don't let the little ones keep you from participating!

The meeting is free and open to the public. The church is wheelchair accessible. Please call or e-mail Dave if you need any other accommodations. (315-7687 / greenpmc34@yahoo.com)

Even if you cannot make it, please invite others you feel would be interested. It's time to create a Green presence in Rochester!

And yes, we will be discussing the upcoming Mayoral Election.

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And speaking of the upcoming Mayoral Election... in spite of all the rumors, the Green Party does NOT have a candidate yet. One person announced that he is seeking the nomination, but that does not mean that he is the candidate, or even the "frontrunner". We are in the process of choosing a candidate so if you are interested, you have to download a questionnaire, fill it out and turn it in by January 16th. The following week will be interviews by the County Committee and the decision will be made the week after that. Let me repeat that...there is NO candidate yet. Download the questionnaire. It's at the top of the right column of this website.

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Did you know that we now have a phone number and PO Box? Yep. You can call us at (585) 360-0313. And our PO Box is: PO Box 26235 Rochester, NY 14626 Now if you go on vacation, you can send us a postcard!

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Most of you already know this, just because you're on this e-mail list, but you've been able to register Green in New York State for years. Pretty soon, the Green option will be on all Voter Registration cards, but until that time you can just check "other" and write Green in. So if you're not registered Green, it's time you did. If you're already Green, you can get your friends and family to hop on the Green wagon. You can get voter reg cards all over town or download one at http://www.elections.state.ny.us/NYSBOE/download/voting/voteform.pdf

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Like us on Facebook, watch our YouTube videos, subscribe to our podcast. Heck, we're even still on MySpace! 
Our Website: http://www.gpomc.org 
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/greenpartyofmonroe 
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/gpomc 
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Green-Party-of-Monroe-County/129634820388655 
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/greenpartyofMC 
Our Podcast: http://www.greenlinepodcast.com

See you on Monday!

Open Letter to Gov. Cuomo from Howie Hawkins, 2010 Green Party candidate for Governor of NY

An Open Letter to Andrew Cuomo

December 30, 2010

Dear Governor Cuomo,

Congratulations on your election.

During our recent Gubernatorial contest, we emphasized different approaches as to how best restore the state’s fiscal health and to reduce the onerous impact of local property taxes. But as you prepare to start your administration, it is critical that the long term needs of our state take priority over the political rhetoric that dominates election campaigns.

For most New Yorkers, especially the more than one million who are unemployed or underemployed, the lack of jobs is the most critical issue. And with our state and country facing the greatest recession in seventy years, it is imperative that government policies at all levels provide a cost effective economic stimulation.

Progressive tax reform, starting with ending the rebate of billions of dollars annually from the Stock Transfer Tax, should at the top of the list for three reasons: for fiscal responsibility, for jobs and economic recovery, and for providing needed public services.

Fiscal Responsibility: As economists such as Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz have pointed out, it is fiscally irresponsible in a major recession to rule out progressive tax reforms that raise taxes on the wealthy and cut taxes for the middle and working classes. In particular, tax cuts for the wealthy such as recently enacted by Congress will do nothing to stimulate the economy because they do nothing to stimulate demand.

The share of income taken home by the richest 1 percent of Americans has almost tripled in the last three decades to 24 percent. New York has the most unequal income distribution of all 50 states. Yet the rate for the top income tax bracket in New York is less than half of what it was in the 1970s. The wealthy need to pay their fair share of taxes again.

Retaining the revenue from New York’s existing Stock Sales Tax would generate at least $13 billion in additional revenue, eliminating the projected $10 billion budget deficit for 2011. Along with other revenue reforms it would generate a surplus for job creation and public services, which will help the economy to recover.

The Stock Transfer Tax is a tiny sales tax on stock purchases, with a graduated scale topping out at 1/20th of 1 percent or $350, whichever is less, on large purchases of a stock. Compare that to the 8 percent sales tax on consumer goods. The tax has been collected since 1915. But since 1981, it has been collected and then immediately rebated.

This sales tax primarily hits on those who speculate on stocks rather than those who make long-term investments. The sales tax revenue been growing rapidly due the computerized high-frequency trading on their own accounts by big financial firms like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase – a form of insider trading that distorts the market and should be discouraged. These firms, which the taxpayers bailed out with trillions in federal loans and guarantees and are now highly profitable, pay the lion’s share of the Stock Transfer Tax.

Jobs and Economic Recovery: The economy needs public spending to raise demand in an economy that is stagnant, with excess productive capacity, intractably high unemployment, and mounting foreclosures and bankruptcies. The banks and corporations are sitting on trillions of dollars in cash. But they are not lending and investing because the consumer demand to make such investments profitable is not there. If government doesn’t step in with spending to raise demand, the economy will continue to deteriorate, lowering tax revenues, and necessitating further public spending cuts, which will further depress the economy. It is a vicious downward spiral. With consumer demand and therefore business investment depressed, only increased government spending can turn the economy around.

Public Services: In this stagnant economy, there is an increased need for public services, from safety net programs to aid the unemployed and their families to public jobs in public works and services to reduce unemployment. Whether it is the under-staffing of schools and snow removal crews due to recent budget cuts, it makes no sense to cut public jobs and services when we face high unemployment, depressed consumer demand, and increased needs for public assistance.

I highlight the Stock Transfer Tax because it is revenue the state already collects but gives right back. It is not a new tax. It just requires that the state retain revenues it already receives.

Income tax reform is another option. The massive and growing disparity of wealth in NY and the US is a fundamental cause of our present economic crisis and needs. The Progressive Caucus of the NYC City Council recently proposed changing the state and city income tax laws to recapture part of the hundreds of billions of dollars in a tax cut windfall recently given to the wealthy by Congress.

If New York went back to the progressive income tax structure we had in 1972, the state would raise $8 billion more in revenue while giving 95% of New Yorkers a tax cut. In 1972, New York State had a personal income tax with 14 graduated brackets, ranging from a low of 2% to a high of 15%. Today New York has only five flatter brackets, between 4% and 6.85%. Most people with a full-time job reach the top bracket. A single person reaches the top 6.85% rate once his or her taxable income reaches $20,000, a married couple at $40,000. A more progressive income tax would increase state revenues and, due to the tax cut for the working and middle classes, increase consumer demand to help the economy recover.

The state’s fiscal crisis is not due to excessive spending, but rather to under-taxing the wealthy. Let’s not make the state’s economy and fiscal crisis worse with austerity measures that cut public spending while leaving the existing regressive tax structure in place.

There are certainly areas of wasteful spending that should be addressed. We need to control our skyrocketing health care costs, by far the biggest part of the state budget. The first step should be to eliminating the enormous waste associated with our odd system of private health insurance. We need to stop spending billions of dollars on economic development and tax expenditures that reward campaign contributors rather than creating jobs. We need to stop wasting enormous amounts of tax dollars in contracting out services, such as we witnessed with the recent payroll scandal in NYC. We need to stop the endemic graft among state legislators.

It seems like every politician these days talk about a green vision for the future of New York. That will only begin to be realized under your tenure as Governor if you provide the leadership needed to make the necessary public investments to rebuild New York for a sustainable prosperity.

Sincerely,

Howie Hawkins
2010 Green Party candidate for NY Governor
Syracuse NY